Airlines have experienced challenges with boarding passengers since commercial aircraft have been able to carry more than a very small number of passengers. The expansion of commercial passenger aviation to include more aircraft, more scheduled flights, and distinctions between classes of passengers on these flights has resulted in a situation in which more time is spent boarding passengers than on other aircraft ground operations. Getting passengers to assigned seats and carry-on baggage to available spaces in overhead bins commonly slows aircraft departures. Slowed aircraft turnarounds may be not only frustrating to passengers, but also potentially costly to airlines.
Most departing aircraft at large international airports are connected at one end to a terminal building by a passenger loading bridge or jet bridge that connects at an opposite end to an aircraft door in a forward section of the aircraft. At smaller airports and even at larger airports in many countries, an aircraft's forward access stairs or portable stairs may be used for passenger boarding through the aircraft's forward entry door. Generally, only one passenger at a time can pass through the door, creating an initial bottleneck. The systems currently used by airlines to board passengers, moreover, create additional bottlenecks that may significantly increase the time between when a passenger first enters the aircraft door and when the last passenger is seated.
Much effort has been expended reviewing and analyzing aircraft passenger boarding systems. Boarding systems have been subjected to mathematical analysis, computer modeling, and other analytic processes, and many proposed solutions require a level of passenger regimentation that is admitted to be likely to be resisted by most passengers. Airlines long ago instituted various passenger-pleasing preference policies that ensure preferential treatment of passengers who pay higher fares and/or fly frequently and regularly on an airline. These passengers are typically seated first in the front section of an aircraft closest to the entry door in wide seats, or even beds on long international flights, while the rest of the passengers maneuver past them on their way to the less desirable and less costly seats behind this section. Since about 2008, when most of the larger airlines began to charge fees for checked baggage, the procession of passengers maneuvering down aircraft aisles has also included a large quantity of carry-on baggage, most often in the form of a rolling case, that must be stowed in overhead bins or below seats in front of the passengers. Passengers looking for available overhead bin space that will accommodate carry-on bags near assigned seats may create additional bottlenecks that delay the boarding process.
The boarding process used by most airlines assigns specific seats to passengers and then boards passengers in a designated order. Preferred passengers are boarded and seated first, then families with small children and/or those needing assistance, although this order may be reversed. Everyone else, the group that includes the largest number of passengers, is boarded after the first two groups have been called. Of this group, passengers assigned seats in the rear of the aircraft are typically directed to board first, and the remaining passengers are directed to board in order from the rear toward the front. If a passenger assigned to a window seat arrives after those in the row assigned to middle or aisle seats are seated, the seated passengers may have to get out of their seats to let the newly arrived passenger reach the seat, creating yet another bottleneck. A passenger boarding process designed to eliminate this particular bottleneck has been adopted by United Airlines. The system used by United, demonstrated by computer models to be faster than the rear to front system just described, has been named “WilMA,” for window-middle-aisle. After first class and other preferred passengers are boarded, the remaining passengers assigned to window seat are boarded first, then those in middle seats, then those in aisle seats. Passengers have objected to this system, however, since family members who selected seats together in a row are separated by the boarding process, leaving children unaccompanied by an adult waiting to board. In addition, finding an available overhead bin for carry-on baggage has been found to be more challenging with this system. The passenger boarding system used by Southwest Airlines does not assign specific seats to passengers, but directs passengers to board in the order in which they check in, with the possibility of earlier boarding with the payment of a fee. Passengers choose seats and stow bags after boarding, which has led to a quicker boarding process and less delay than the other systems described. At least one airline currently charges an additional fee for carry-on bags, which has been reported to reduce both the number of these bags and the delays caused by passengers trying to put them in overhead bin space. Whether this approach is likely to be adopted by more airlines or favorably received by passengers who carry their bags onboard to avoid checked baggage charges is debatable.
Congestion inside an airport terminal gate prior to boarding may often be an issue that presents challenges to airline gate personnel trying to check in and board passengers. Systems for passenger boarding that organize passengers in a boarding order inside an airport terminal prior to actual boarding of an aircraft have been proposed. In U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2013/0041855, for example, Scruggs et al describes a time saving method of boarding passengers onto aircraft and other vehicles in which seats in a gate waiting area are arranged in rows that correspond to the number of seats on an aircraft to be boarded. Passengers are directed to their assigned seat in the waiting area, and carry-on bags are placed in bins located adjacent to the seats while pre-flight instructions usually given onboard the aircraft are given while passengers wait to board. Actual aircraft boarding is carried out in a rear to front process as described above, and passengers still must stow their carry-on bags after boarding the aircraft, unless these bags have been determined too large to fit and were checked at the gate. Most interior gate areas at airports lack the floor space required to replicate the interior seating of the commercial aircraft likely to be using the gate, however. Expanding interior gate area to set up the system described by Scruggs et al is highly likely to require expansion of an airport terminal, which is not an option at most airports. The Scruggs et al system contemplates using middle and rear vehicle doors in addition to a front door for boarding, but it is not suggested that boarding could be other than in a rear to front order.
An airline passenger boarding system called the “flying carpet”, described at the-flying-carpet.com, provides a carpet that is a scaled down replica of an aircraft seating plan and accommodates about 30 people at a time. Passengers stand on a carpet area that corresponds to their seat. When there is no more room, this group of passengers is boarded, and another group of passengers can find their seats on the carpet. Boarding of each group of passengers is conducted from rear to front as in systems described above; the difference is that the passengers are likely to be scattered throughout the aircraft. While this interior gate system does not take up the space of the Scruggs et al system, it does not eliminate delays caused by window or middle seat passengers arriving after aisle seat passengers. Since this system appears to use a first to stand on the seat space is the first to board approach, passengers anxious to board early are likely to jockey with other passengers for space on the carpet, which could make crowd control in the gate area interesting.
None of the passenger boarding systems proposed by the airline industry or the prior art completely addresses all of the challenges with boarding a large number of people and a large number of carry-on bags on an aircraft with limited passenger access and space for passenger movement or that eliminates, or at least reduces, the main passenger boarding bottlenecks that delay an aircraft's departure. With the exception of the Scruggs et al system, which presents the disadvantages discussed above, a flexible passenger boarding system that fully utilizes multiple passenger entry doors on an aircraft to optimize passenger boarding has not been suggested.